Definition of a classic: a book everyone is assumed to have read and often thinks they have.
Alan Bennett

Life is generally something that happens elsewhere.
Alan Bennett

My films are about embarrassment.
Alan Bennett

Those who have known the famous are publicly debriefed of their memories, knowing as their own dusk falls that they will only be remembered for remembering someone else.
Alan Bennett

Cancer, like any other illness, is a bore.
Alan Bennett

I've never seen the point of the sea, except where it meets the land. The shore has a point. The sea has none.
Alan Bennett

We started off trying to set up a small anarchist community, but people wouldn't obey the rules.
Alan Bennett